The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-08-24


| tan ChoUchCs," p. l39.
care not we laymen priests also"'
wrote Tertullian, defending the rights
Of the people against the rising hier-
archy. tits written: He hath made
us kings and priests (Rev. 1861 II
is the authority Of the church alone
which has made distinction between
clergy and laity. Where there is no
college of ministers you administer
the sacrament; you baptize, you are a
priest for yourself alone. And where
there are three of you, there is q
church, though you be only laymen.
For each ore lives by his own faith,
and there is no respect of persons with
God. ."-De ErhOrt. Cast, c. I.
During the Revolutionary war, a
church in Vermont, near the CANADA
line, composed Of members from both
sides, sat down together at the Lord's
table, on the Sabbath, and before the
next Sabbath they were shooting and
Stabbing one another; and the com.
munion was never refused to them (by
other churches); for the state sane
toned the murder. and the church con-
formed to the world. Some may he
startled at this; but do they not know
that this is always the case? What
do we mean by "the communion OF
saints?" Is it not the mHty of the
church and of the body and blood OF
| Christ? lis, therefore, one table anu
one sacrament. Let, the communi-
cants be separated by ever so many
oceans and continents, it signifies no
more to the great Head of the Church
than the aisles of the Westinghouse
or the ratings of the pews. That war
should be sanctioned by the Church OF
Christ implies awful guilt somewhere.
Even most men of the world nCat
think that all war is murder on one
side or the other. But / believe that
the law of Christ makes cool and de-
liberate declaration of war to be delib-
crate and cold-blooded murder, on
either side. But the church, as q
body, stands aloof, and so long as she
does so, the millennium can never
come. In the mean time, all the
blood which shall be shed will be
found in the skirts of those professed
followers of the Lamb, who counte-
nance the soul-destroying customs OF
the world. God has put it into the
power Of his church to hush the storm
of war, whenever she chooses to eXer-
else it; but that never can be done
while the church sanctions war. [ do
not believe that it ever was the mind
and will Of Christ, that his followers
should ever engage in war on any
emergency. I do not believe that the
same God, who sent his only Son into
the world to suffer and die for the re-
demption of precious souls, has ever,
since that offering, authorized a Gus
tom which makes that sacrifice of no
effect to millions who, but for war,
might have been saved.
Sorrow is not just the same in its
| first hours and in its later remem-
brance In the earliest shock of Il
great grief, it seems to the mourner
that he can never know joy again.
But there are those who once sorrow
ed sorely, and yet are now without a
sense of grief or loss. So evident is
the possibility of forgetfulncss of
personal bereavement, that there are
mourners who seek to drown their sor-
row, in order that it may be forgotten ;
while other mournerS deliberately
nurse their grief, lest they should for
get it. Sorrow can never do its be st
work in a human heart if, on the one
hand, it is forgotten, or if, on the 9th
er hand, it is nursed. 1t ought, in
deed, to be struggled with, and yet to
be horne in memory. It's Christening
influence should abide in the heart
long after the keenness of its pain has
ceased to unnerve the mourner for his
daily life-toil. He has failed of profit
ing by the true ministry of sorrow,
who no longer bears his sorrow in
mind, or who wishes it might be for
gotten.
"'Thcy are poor
That have lost nothing; they arc poorer far
Who, losing, have forgotten; they are most
OF all who lose, and wish they might forget.
He also has failed of this profiting.
who so seliishly cherishes his sorrow
that it stands between him and his
loving ministry of good to others, in
added tenderness of helpful sympathy.
"Grief should be
Like Joy, majestic, cquahle. scdatc.
Confirming. cleansing, raising, making lrce:
Strong to consume small troubles; 10 COM
mend
Great thoughts. grave thoughts, thoughts
lasting to the end
A tcnder-hearted and compassionate
disposition, which inclines men to
pity and feel the misfortunes of 9th
ers, and which is even for its own
sake incapable of involving any man
in ruin and misery, is of all tempers
of mind the most amiable; and
though il seldom receives much hon
or, is worthy of the highest.